Just mention banking to almost anyone these days and you risk them having a heart-attack. This is especially true here on the edge of the world as bankers seem to have lost interest in holding people´s money - something which used to be what was expected of them.
First of the useless bankers was Barclays, who pulled out of Spain and even Gibraltar - all well-before brexit was even coined. I remember as I was setting up the Barclays Gib account (ok, waiting in a queue to do so), a guy said to me " you must be mad setting up with this lot - they are useless and I am moving my account". Prescient. They did not last long and were pretty crap on the service front.
With Barclays demise, and still in Gib, we moved to a Scandi bank named Jyske. Nicely set up (and even in the old Barclays offices I seem to recall), with pleasant staff and fast access to funds or managers. It couldn´t last - and didn´t. About 4 years I think, before they pulled out, but sold the business to some oddly named consortium (Noa?) "backed by the Gibraltar government". They vanished so quickly I can´t even remember their full name, but before they went, they divested themselves of any Brits living in Spain (legally of not, they didn´t want them). G reckons the bank might still be there, but I somehow doubt it.
With their demise, we reverted to Barclays Channel Isles - which actually ended up with us investing in Barclays IoM as they were the ones who had better insurance cover (the Jersey, Channel Islands bank didn´t think of telling us about that, despite it being a desktop exercise to switch).
Well, last week we received a letter from the UK Barclays bank telling us that they are closing our account (only held for 55 years, but customer loyalty is not the sort of thing banks give a toss about any more). This fin de siecle is not like Barclaycard where a UK address wil be accepted - UK residency is the requirement, or just sod off.
Luckily they gave us 6 months to close the account - which may prove necessary if only in just getting them to answer the bloody ´phone. I eventually found someone who answered, but he wasn´t in a group allowed to actually help me, but did confirm what I suspected - it was not a British government issue, nor an EU issue - simply a Barclays business decision.
A business decision ignoring the fact that almost every overseas customer with a UK account also has overseas Barclays accounts - but do they recognise this and try to help - like hell they do.
It actually turned out that I could have a current account in the IoM instead, so that is where we have moved (hating Barclays, but recognising that it is just tooooo much trouble to open new / different bank accounts these days). I still find it amazing they didn´t recogniseand suggest this option, but basically they are just crap.
.... of course that it just the start. Now I have to move the pensions payments - which are all that is left in the UK. Contacting the DHSS has been harder than contacting Barclays, with it taking nearly 3 weeks just to answer an online query (and , no, you cannot do anything by email, it has to be by ´phone or letter). As the ´phone handests regularly run out of juice after half an hour of waiting, I eventually had to resort to the old Skype online system - which I can leave running in the background with the interminable "we value your custom"-style messages letting me know I am still in the god-forsaken queue.
Happily, and after more than half an hour´s waiting, a geordie bloke came on and effected the changes once I had summoned G to the handset to give all the answers (I was providing) to his questions. Pleasant and efficient once contacted. So a done dowgie.
Well, we hope. Now have to watch the new account to ensure money is heading in the right direction - then Barclays UK can really go and stuff themselves.
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